Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-10-22

Then once more she began her unholy
rites:
Curse her when she shall be born again!
Let her be born accursedl
Let her be utterly accursed from the
hour of her birth until sleep finds herl
Eyes, then let her be accursed. for then
shall / overtake her with my vengeance,
and utterly destroy her!"
And so on. The flame rose and fell, re-
fiecting itself in her agonized eyes; the
Kissing sound Of her terrible malediction-
n no words of mine, especially on paper,
can convey how terrible they were-ran
round the walls, and died away in little
echoes, and the fierce light and deep gloom
alternated themselves on the white n
dreadful form stretched upon that bier OF
stone.
But at length she seemed to wear herself
out. and ceased. She sat herself down upon
the rocky floor, and shook the dense cloud
of her beautiful hair over her face and
breast, and commenced to sob terribly In
the torture of a he~art-rending despair.
my lovel my lovel my love! Why did
that stranger bring thee back to me after
his sort? For five hundred years l have
not suffered thus. Oh, if / sinned against
thee, have 1 not wiped away the sini
When wilt thou come back to me, who
have all, and yet without thee have naught!
What is there that l can do? Whats
What! What? And perchance SLEEPER
chance that Egyptian doth abide with thee
where thou art, and mock my memory.
Oh, why could l not die with thee, / who
slew theep Alas that l can not die! Alasi
Alasl'' And she flung herself prone upon
tho rrprnd mud cnhhaH md want fill L
thought her heart must burst.
Suddenly she ceased, raised herself to
her feet, and tossing back her long locks
impatiently, swept across to where the fig
ure lay upon the stone.
"Oh, Kallikrates," she cried, and / trem-
bled at the name, ~ must look upon thy
face again, Though it be agony. 1t is a
generation since l looked upon thee whom
l slew-slew with mine own hand" and
with trembling fingers she seized the cor
ner of the wrapping that lay over the form
upon the stone bier. and she paused. When
she spoke again, it was in a kind OF awed
whisper, as though her idea were terrible
ever to herself.
"Shall / raise thee" she said, apparently
addressing the corpse, $50 that thou stand
est there before me as Of old? lean do it,"
and she held out her hands over the sheeted
dead, while her whole frame became rigid
and terrible to see, and her eyes grew fixed
and dull. / shrunk in horror behind the
curtain, my halr stood up upon my head,
and whether it was my imagination or a
fact, ! IN unable to say, but | thought
that the quiet form beneath the covering
began to culver, and the winding-sheet to
lift as though it lay on the breast of one
who slept. Suddenly she withdrew her
hands.
"What is the use2" she said, gloomily.
"Of what use is it to recall the semblance
of life when / can not recall the spirit?
Even il thou stoodest before me thou
wouldst not know me, and couldst but do
what | bid thee. The life in thee would
be my life, and not thy life, Kallikrates."
For a moment she stood there, and then
cast herself down on her knees beside the
form, and began to press her lips against
the sheet, and weep. There was something
so horrible about the sight of this fearsome
woman letting loose her passion on the
dead-so much more horrible even than
anything that had gone before-that I
could no longer bear to look at it, and
turning, commenced to creep, shaking as !
was in every limb, slowly along the pitch
dark passage, feeling in my heart that !
had had a vision of a Soul in He'll.
On / stumbled, l scarcely know how.
Twice / fell, nee l turned up the bisecting
passage, but fortunately found on my
mistake In time. Twenty minutes or more
/ crept along. till at last it occurred to me
that l must have passed the little stair by
which / descended. So, utterly exhausted
aud nearly frightened TO death, l sunk
down at length there on the stone flooring,
n into oblivion.
When l came to I noticed a faint ray OF
light in the passage just behind me. l
crept to it. and found it was the little stair,
down which the weak dawn was stealing.
Passing up it, l gained my chamber in
safety, and fiinging myself or the couch,
was soon lost in siumber, or rather stupor.